To the Editor.—In the February 1986 issue of the Archives, Kinney et al1 speculate that President Grover Cleveland may have had necrotizing sialometaplasia (NS). They recount the President's major surgery for an ulcer on the hard palate, believed to be malignant, and his survival for 15 years without the benefit of radiotherapy. This suggests to the authors that the palatal lesion may actually have been benign. Kinney et al are not alone in their thinking. Grillon and Lally,2 in 1981, suggested that Cleveland's lesion may have been NS, based on the presence of a painless palatal ulcer that exposed bone, the absence of regional lymphadenopathy, and clinical evidence of partial healing after conservative therapy. Lynch et al,3 in 1979, went so far as to state that President Cleveland's condition "may have been the most notable case of misdiagnosis of NS." They viewed surgical therapy of the